Satellite radio companies Sirius and XM are one step closer to closing the merger they proposed over a year ago. The Department of Justice has stamped its seal of approval on on the merger. The DoJ writes, “After a careful and thorough review of the proposed transaction, the Division concluded that the evidence does not demonstrate that the proposed merger of XM and Sirius is likely to substantially lessen competition, and that the transaction therefore is not likely to harm consumers.”

All that is left now is approval from the FCC before the merger is completely green lit. Whether that will happen or not remains unclear as FCC head Kevin Martin has, as recently as last week, stated that he’s still unclear on how he’ll rule. Martin recently told staff, “I have the staff drafting various options. I haven’t figured out what I think we should do on it yet.”

Given the high operation costs of satellite radio, this merger, if approved, will allow the companies to combine many resources and eventually diminish overhead. Although there are incompatibility issues with current devices, it’s not a stretch to see the companies merging programming and players under one new moniker. We’ll see what happens though.